31 December 2007

originally posted 18 december 2007. post date change to move it to the top of the december 2007 archive page -- due to a glitch in google search which is sending googlers to the entire monthly archive instead of to this one post page.

what began as a day of joy and hope in the wee hours that summery friday in the columbine state, would come to a tragic and as her mother and family insist, suspicious, end one fall sunday morning 8,108 days later in rapides parish, louisiana at 306 powell drive in timber view apartments #36.

heather-renee as she preferred to be called, life wasnt so very different from many of her contemporaries - as an infant her parents divorced. "the divorce was not amicable and had in fact been very tumultuous," wrote rapides parish sheriff detective mike stephan in his 19 march 2006 report.

according to heather-renee's mother "heather-renee started modeling when she was three, when she and her step-sister did several commercials for a local children's clothing store called kids dress for less. then she started pageants. she competed in them well into her teens. then started modeling as much as she could going to shoots all across the u.s."

indeed, heather-renee's profile at "one model place" she describes herself as an "experienced, semi-professional" available for a variety of modeling assignments including: fashion, runway, sport/fitness and glamour.

when heather-renee was 18 or 19 years old her mother began a mobile nursing job. they moved from jackson, mississippi to salisbury maryland and then to milwaukee, wisconsin. in milwaukee, heather-renee met a boy "a.j." whom she thought she was going to marry. her mother took a job in hawaii and heather-renee stayed behind in milwaukee.

but marriage wasnt meant to be and heather-renee and a.j. broke up. heather missing her friends and maternal family in mississipi moved back to jackson where she got a job as a data entry clerk at river region health system.

although as the sheriff department notes, heather-renee and her father, michael skarina, had mostly been estranged since her parents divorce they did occasionally talk on the telephone and in one such conversation she requested her father come and "bring her from her residence in vicksburgh, ms. to his apartment in ball for an extended visit due to her being upset over her recently having had a miscarriage as well as having had her boyfriend break up with her." which he did.

on friday 16 september 2005, for some unknown reason and probably not exercising the best in parental judgment, heather-renee's father, who's according to the police report "full-time employment is with the state of louisiana working with at-risk juveniles in the youth challenge program at camp beauregard," arraigned a night out at baily's night club located in marksville, avoyelles parish, louisiana.

its unclear who's idea it was to invite along mr. skarina's "co-worker" leslie clark, a man only a few years older than heather-renee and who happened to be married at the time, although, reportedly estranged from his wife misty.

the party arrived back at mr. clark's apartment and somehow unbeknownest to mr. skarina, heather-renee and leslie clark slipped off and went to mr. clark's mother lorraine gallien's mobile home located at hwy 1204 ball, louisiana.

when mr. skarina realized that heather-renee and leslie clark were gone, he suddenly didnt approve of mr. clark. this is according to ball policeman wayne clark's incident report. so he went to mr. clark's estranged wife misty's house who then drove him in her vehicle to mr. clarks's mothers mobile home. a fight ensued.

the incident at lorraine gallien's mobile home resulted in heather-renee and her father leaving with misty clark. ms. clark then drove the father and daughter back to his car which he had left at her home on camp beauregard.

on the way back to michael skarina's apartment heather-renee and her father had an argument, she told ball policeman wayne clark, who happened by after noticing "a white female standing in the median crossing...trying to flag down cars." that she had "grabbed the steering wheel of the car and ran it off into the ditch." this resulted in mr. skarina's car having a flat tire. while they waited for mr. skarina to change his tire, heather-renee decided that she would go home with her father but that "she just didnt want to ride in the same car with him." policeman clark then drove heather-renee to her father's apartment.

according to the police report what transpired next after mr. skarina and heather-renee arrived home around 5:30 a.m. that saturday morning: "michael and heather spent some time discussing the previous incidents and making plans for the future. they intended to return to vicksburgh the following monday or tuesday to pick up heather's belongings. heather was either going to move in with michael and his son christopher, or obtain her own lodgings in the ball, la. area."

heather-renee then went to bed and slept for the remainder of the day. around 10:00 p.m. that night, she got up to let her dog raven out, went to the bathroom and the kitchen and returned to her bedroom.

crime scene photo

the next morning heather-renee's step-brother christopher who was ten years old awoke sometime between 7 - 8 a.m. he checked on his step-sister several times and thinking that she was still sleeping spread a light blanket over her. around 10 a.m. michael skarina awoke and sent christopher in to wake heather-renee for breakfast. christopher couldnt wake her and told his father who then went in to check on her. mr. skarina found heather-renee unresponsive and phoned a "medical emergency" in to 911.

the ball, la. police responded and then the rapides parish sheriff's department. but heather-renee was dead. she was 22 years 2 months and 10 days old.that afternoon, at the same time the coroner was removing heather-renee's lifeless body from apartment #36, the national weather service was busy too. meteorologists there were upgrading tropical depression eighteen giving it a name that wont soon be forgotten either...rita.

wow. we dont know what the louisiana highway safety commission were thinking, or if they were thinking at all, when they made this goofy, over the top commercial. if it does anything, it causes the viewer to feel sorry for the poor driver and makes you realize that the driver isnt necessarily the one at fault here -- its the fault of the crazy, screaming bitch in the seat next to him.

the louisiana highway safety commission, if they are really concerned about drunk driving then they should start making honest, intelligent public service announcements and they stop playing people's emotions with garbage such as this.

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. released an opinion Friday stating that legislators cannot hold a position in a sheriff’s office, even if that position is appointed or part time.

Anne Dunn, director of House Legislative Services, requested the opinion, but said she could not divulge for which legislator she requested the information.

Foti wrote in his opinion that state law prohibits elected officials from holding another elective office, a full-time appointed office, or employment in state government or a political subdivision of state government.

However, the attorney general concluded that holding even a part-time appointed position in a sheriff’s office is prohibited because the Louisiana Constitution states that no one holding office in one of the three branches of government shall exercise power belonging to either of the other branches. emphasis ours

According to the opinion, a legislator is considered a part of the government’s legislative branch and a deputy sheriff, who is given the same authority granted by law as a sheriff, is a constitutional officer who serves in the judicial branch.

take the so called 'baggy pants' ordinance for example. councilman charles frederick smith authored that ordinance. councilman johnson voted for it as well. now how do we know that they arent using their positions as councilmen to pass criminal or civil violation ordinances against their enemies or people that they dont like so that they can then turn around and enforce it in their positions as law enforcement officers. in other words you cant be a cop and at the same time write the laws that you are going to enforce. it's just not right.

perhaps this attorney general opinion addresses this...time will tell.

senator joseph lieberman the chairman of the senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs, is a radical zionist and agent of the israeli government. michael chertoff the secretary of homeland security is another rabid zionist and is widely believed to hold dual israeli and american citizenship.

Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (Referred to Senate Committee after being Received from House)

Latest Major Action: 10/24/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.House Reports: 110-384 Part 1

The Pope had his Index of Forbidden Books. Japan had its Thought Police against subversive or dangerous ideologies. And the United States Congress and President Bush have learned nothing from those examples.

Congress is perched to enact the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (Act)," probably the greatest assault on free speech and association in the United States since the 1938 creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).[...]The Senate companion bill (S. 1959), sponsored by Susan Collins, Maine Republican, has encountered little opposition. Especially in an election year, senators crave every opportunity to appear tough on terrorism. Few if any care about or understand either freedom of expression or the Thought Police dangers of S. 1959. Former President John Quincy Adams presciently lamented: "Democracy has no forefathers, it looks to no posterity, it is swallowed up in the present and thinks of nothing but itself."

Denuded of euphemisms and code words, the Act aims to identify and stigmatize persons and groups who hold thoughts the government decrees correlate with homegrown terrorism, for example, opposition to the Patriot Act or the suspension of the Great Writ of habeas corpus.

The Act will inexorably culminate in a government listing of homegrown terrorists or terrorist organizations without due process; a complementary listing of books, videos, or ideas that ostensibly further "violent radicalization;" and a blacklisting of persons who have intersected with either list.

Political discourse will be chilled and needed challenges to conventional wisdom will flag. There are no better examples of sinister congressional folly.

The Act inflates the danger of homegrown terrorism manifold to justify creating a marquee National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Ideologically Based Violence (Commission) in the legislative branch. Since September 11, 2001, no American has died from homegrown terrorism, while about 120,000 have been murdered.[...]Prior to September 11, homegrown terrorism consisted largely of Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, the Unibomber and the D.C. Metropolitan area snipers. The Act, nevertheless, counterfactually finds "homegrown terrorism ... poses a threat to domestic security" that "cannot be easily prevented through traditional federal intelligence or law enforcement efforts."

Under the Act, William Lloyd Garrison would have been guilty of promoting "violent radicalization" for publishing the anti-slavery Liberator in 1831, which "facilitated" John Brown. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton would have been condemned for assailing laws disenfranchising women and creating an intellectual atmosphere receptive to violence. And Martin Luther King, Jr. would have fallen under the Act's suspicion for denouncing Jim Crow and practicing civil disobedience, which "facilitated" H. Rap Brown.[...]Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes observed in Gitlow v. New York (1925): "Every idea is an incitement. It offers itself for belief and if believed it is acted on unless some other belief outweighs it or some failure of energy stifles the movement at its birth. The only difference between expression of an opinion and an incitement in the narrower sense is the speaker's enthusiasm for the result."

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according to house roll call vote #993 of 23 october 2007 for H.R.1955 with the exception of piyush "bobby" jindal who didnt bother to vote, every other congressman from louisiana voted for this bill:rodney alexander - yearichard hugh baker - yeacharles boustany - yeawm. jefferson - yeajim mccrery - yeacharlie melancon - yea

This bill is completely insane. It literally allows the government to define any and all crimes including thought crime as violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism. Obviously, this legislation is unconstitutional on a number of levels and it is clear that all 404 representatives who voted in favor of this bill are traitors and should be removed from office immediately. The treason spans both political parties and it shows us all that there is no difference between them. The bill will go on to the Senate and will likely be passed and signed into the law by George W. Bush. Considering that draconian legislation like the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act have already been passed, there seems little question that this one will get passed as well. This is more proof that our country has been completely sold out by a group of traitors at all levels of government. ~ rogue government link

29 December 2007

poor katrina mary, she just cant win for losing. in this town talk piece she is bemoaning the fact that president bush:

“pocket vetoed” a bill that includes a provision by Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., to make the primary mission of U.S. counter-terror operations the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other leaders of al Qaeda and the destruction of their terrorist network.

apparently, no one on nutty katrina mary's nutty staff bothered to read the new york times 04 july 2006 edition because if they had they would have known:

The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday. The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

world trade center building seven (wtc7)inexplicably collapses the afternoon of 11 september 2001

nutty katrina mary says:

“Our priority must be to hunt down the men responsible for the attacks of September 11th and many of the insurgent strikes on our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan”

yet for some reason katrina mary remains silent about building seven. if nutty katrina mary was sincere in getting to the bottom of and punishing those really responsible for the 11 september 2001 attacks, instead of pulling a rather lame political stunt, she would be doing something useful like speaking out, demanding an investigation into why building seven, which was struck by nothing but some dust that day, collapsed.

"Jesus did not come to earth to be the Messiah" This is clear blasphemy to every real Christian of any denomination. This hag is no Christian, he doesn't worship Jesus as the Messiah...he worships the Jews. Beware...beware...beware of false prophets in the end days!!! ~ youtube commenter MrWood14

A Shreveport attorney has sued the federal government over an Internal Revenue Service investigation of his business dealings.

Tommy Cryer alleges that four IRS criminal investigation division employees tried to destroy his reputation during the course of the investigation. His lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Shreveport, claims that IRS agents Jimmy H. Sandefur, Darrin A. Heusel and Judge Armand and agent trainee Patrick Potter "entered into a smear and fear campaign to destroy Plaintiff's good reputation and law practice."

The lawsuit also alleges that the four IRS employees violated federal laws forbidding the disclosure of tax information, disclosures about an investigation and disclosure of a grand jury investigation. Cryer's suit contends that the agents discussed those issues in phone calls, letters and personal visits while interviewing Cryer's clients during the investigation.

Cryer is seeking at least $1,000 in damages for each time an agent disclosed the information, according to the lawsuit.

He also has filed a criminal complaint with the U.S. Attorney's Office, asking that those officials investigate the agents' actions.

In July, a jury acquitted Cryer of two federal misdemeanor charges that he failed to file tax returns. Two felony counts of tax evasion were dropped before the trial on the misdemeanor charges started. Those charges alleged that Cryer avoided income taxes by putting income into a trust he created in 1993. The charges alleged that Cryer failed to file income tax returns for the trust.

Cryer has contended for at least a decade that federal law doesn't tax personal earnings. He said he stopped filing returns 10 years ago.

yet once again we louisianaians must count on the federal government to investigate crooked politicians and political corruption in this state because local districts attorney and police refuse to do their jobs - most likely because they are all in on it together.

We have been asked to assist in a criminal investigation for the collection of information involving a federal inquiry regarding the Redflex Traffic Systems and the Safe Speed Lafayette program. We are asking anyone in the State of Louisiana and/or any other state, who is interested in having their Safe Speed Notices, or any other correspondence received from Redflex and/or the Safe Speed Program, to be reviewed by the requesting federal authority to please drop off or mail a copy of the envelope and contained Notice therein to 1330 KVOL-AM at 3225 Ambassador Caffery, Lafayette, Louisiana 70506.

KVOL will accommodate citizens with copy machine usage in order to collect evidence for the federal authority. Recipients of said notices are also encouraged to fax a copy of envelopes and letters or contents enclosed to 337-993-5510. Collection of the above mentioned material can be done during business hours at 3225 Ambassador Caffery, Lafayette, LA 70506; However, faxes can be sent 24 hours/7 days a week. Citizens’ privacy and confidential information will be protected. The information collected will be transferred directly to the federal authority and will not be retained by Pittman Broadcasting Services LLC, KVOL-AM 1330, Ware Investigations LLC or Joel Henderson.

this morning the town talk is reporting that rapides parish district attorney james c. "jam" downs will stand for reelection in the fall of 2008.

amazingly, district attorney downs attempts to sex up the amanda gutweiler hypes case. the very case that spotlighted district attorney corruption and incompetence.

district attorney downs sees "nigger" and poor white trash drug dealers and criminals everywhere. yet, turns a blind eye to all his crime gang pals in the governmental and white collar crime bidness who are behind it all.

jolly good show old chap! the question remains though, will louisianaians exhibit such courage and bravery as our english cousins or will we meekly accept that what our criminal governmental masters spring upon us?

"The group says it has perfected a new and quick way of destroying speed cameras which will enable them to destroy a roadside camera in just a few seconds..."

hmmm this should be interesting...the washington parish, bogalusa, louisiana people are about the most internet savvy group of grass root activists in the state. thats not to take anything away from the legion of bloggers at new orleans, but there is just something different about the residents there and their admirable tenacity and what they will do to get their story out -- like this video for instance.

so earlier tonight when we received an email from a friend about the seemingly unjust firing of a popular and respected doctor at bogalusa we knew that things are about to happen.

our emailer says:

Chad & we saw that,Could you please post the article on your web sites? We could use the coverage on this issue. Dr. LaRavia is well respected and has done a lot of good for our community; therefore, our political powers that be say he must go. Lots of money flows from the state to this facility, and it is amazing how Chamico (owned by Charles Mizell (reservoir commissioner) gets the contracts.

Hopefully, the governor's office and our new governor elect will have people looking at your web sites. We can only hope for the best.

besides finding the premise of the story troubling -- this quote attributed to a "defense attorney" we found particularly nauseating:

Citizens do have the right to say no. "They could say no and not have to worry about getting arrested," defense attorney Jackson Main said. "On the other hand, I'm like everybody else. When a police officer tells me to do something, I'm going to do it whether I have the right to say no or not."

now how would you like to have an attorney with an attitude like that defending you? yeah, same here. so we assumed that mr. main must be a public defender.

we were going to do a post about this story and we wanted to link to mr. main's wisconsin state bar entry, to at least try to warn anyone from wisconsin who might be googling and happen by here, to be sure and avoid this guy.

so we get on the wisconsin state bar website and search "jackson main" and it says "deceased." the next move was to search "main" in hopes of finding him because as you see his full name is jackson turner main, jr. and the only other attorney in wisconsin with the surname "main" is edward d. main.

then we thought maybe the reporter, sarah thomsen perhaps, was working on a couple of stories at the same time and put the wrong name in this story (see eustace mullins quote here) - so we emailed ms. thomsen:

hi thanks for your story but i do have a question: in your story you quote "defense attorney Jackson Main" however when i search the wisconsin state bar association website www.wisbar.org the only jackson main that comes up is listed as deceased. a search of just the surname "main" returns only the deceased jackson turner main, jr. and one other main, edward d. main.

You did find the correct Jackson Main. The attorney I interviewed for that story has since passed on. I believe I did that story three or four years ago. I'm surprised you still found it on a website! As an update, the police department never decided to do such fingerprint people at traffic stops. The idea was dropped shortly after our story ran.

24 December 2007

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.

On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.

Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days.

But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something.

"When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" he asks.

According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country."

Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.

There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday."I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday," he says.

Former adviser to the mayor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as "a huge disgrace." He says most of the instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the Christian religion with disdain.

"I'm sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it," he says.

Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the Jewish quarter, near his home. "A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched."

Jerusalem municipal officials said they are aware of the problem but it has to be dealt with by the police. Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said they had only two complaints from Christians in the past two years. He said that, in both cases, the culprits were caught and punished.

He said the police deploy an inordinately high number of patrols and special technology in the Old City and its surroundings in an attempt to keep order.

Romney should not be the next presidentMitt Romney, a disquieting figure who sure looks like the next president and most surely must be stopped.[...]When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it.

Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.

Eustace Mullins is the last living protege of Ezra Pound and the author of the only book burned in Germany since Hitler (a burning under the direction of Americans) and a former researcher for Joseph McCarthy. He's known almost everyone on the American Right for the last 50 years, and is one of the most hated men in America in some circles. He belongs to no group, espouses no movement or party and doesn't give a damn what you think of him. I found an affable 80 year- old man with a healthy sense of humor and a keen love for Liberty. Here's a piece of my conversation with him on his front porch on July 8th, 2003.

[Y]ou worked with George Stimson on Secrets of the Federal Reserve?

Yes. George was quite a scholar. He was founder of the National Press Club, which did one terrible thing to this country. It created the myth that journalists are serious people. They'd always been known as drunks and fools up to that point, which is what they were. George, because he wasn't a fool or a drunk, created the National Press Club as a place where serious journalists could be taken seriously. But there aren't any. So the NPC became a big office building where a lot of lobbyists and journalists have their offices.

I reprinted Secrets of the Federal Reserve in '83, and it began to sell pretty well, being an updated book, so I printed The World Order which was sort of a spin-off of the research I had left over from revising Secrets of the Federal Reserve.[...]The interesting thing is, the more I studied this, the more simplified everything became. Patriots are always criticized for being very simplistic, but the fact is that once you get to a certain level of knowledge, everything is simple.

according to today's town talk, an appeal date has been set for 5 p.m. wednesday, 30 january 2008, by the alexandria fire and police civil service board. this is according to brian d. cespiva, esq. attorney for the board. kenneth rachal an alexandria police officer was fired following an investigation regarding his use of a taser stun gun and physical force during an easter sunday, 08 april 2007, arrest of ms. doris moses.

heres a well written and sourced time-line of the events leading up to 2001, 107th congress, passage of the so called usa patriot act - H.R.2975 and H.R.3162 senate version.

excerpt:

October 26, 2001: Patriot Act Becomes LawBush signs the Patriot Act into law. Here are some of its provisions:

1) Non-citizens can be detained and deported if they provide “assistance” for lawful activities of any group the government chooses to call a terrorist organization. Under this provision the secretary of state can designate any group that has ever engaged in violent activity as a terrorist organization. Representative Patsy Mink notes that in theory supporters of Greenpeace could now be convicted for supporting terrorism. [San Francisco Chronicle, 11/12/2001]

2) Immigrants can be detained indefinitely, even if they are found not to have any links to terrorism. They can be detained indefinitely for immigration violations or if the attorney general decides their activities pose a danger to national security. They need never be given a trial or even a hearing on their status. [San Francisco Chronicle, 9/8/2002]

3) Internet service providers can be ordered to reveal the web sites and e-mail addresses that a suspect has communicated to or visited. The FBI need only inform a judge that the information is relevant to an investigation. [Village Voice, 11/26/2001; San Francisco Chronicle, 9/8/2002]

4) It “lays the foundation for a domestic intelligence-gathering system of unprecedented scale and technological prowess.” [Washington Post, 11/4/2001] It allows the government to access confidential credit reports, school records, and other records, without consent or notification. [San Francisco Chronicle, 9/8/2002] All of this information can now be given to the CIA, in violation of the CIA’s mandate prohibiting it from spying within the US. [Village Voice, 11/26/2001]

5) Financial institutions are encouraged to disclose possible violations of law or “suspicious activities” by any client. The institution is prohibited from notifying the person involved that it made such a report. The term “suspicious” is not defined, so it is up to the financial institutions to determine when to send such a report.

7) The government can refuse to reveal how evidence is collected against a suspected terrorist defendant. [Tampa Tribune, 4/6/2003]

The law passes without public debate. [Village Voice, 11/9/2001; Village Voice, 11/26/2001] Even though it ultimately took six weeks to pass the law, there was no hearing or congressional debate. [Salon, 3/24/2003]

Congressman Barney Frank (D) says, “This was the least democratic process for debating questions fundamental to democracy I have ever seen. A bill drafted by a handful of people in secret, subject to no committee process, comes before us immune from amendment.” [Village Voice, 11/9/2001]

Only 79 congresspeople, and one senator, Russell Feingold (D), vote against it.

Few in Congress are able to read summaries, let alone the fine print, before voting on it. [Los Angeles Times, 10/30/2001]

Feingold says, “The new law goes into a lot of areas that have nothing to do with terrorism and have a lot to do with the government and the FBI having a wish list of things they want to do.” [Village Voice, 11/9/2001]

Supporters point out that some provisions will expire in four years, but in fact most provisions will not expire. [Chicago Tribune, 11/1/2001]

One year later, criticism of the law grows. [San Francisco Chronicle, 9/8/2002]